High Performing Teams

You don’t need the title of “team leader” to be a leader on your team. In fact, what your team needs is for every member to lead…with strength. Unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned to behave just the opposite.

Instead of focusing on strengths, we tend to focus on weaknesses – in ourselves and others. Or we lead with strengths that aren’t fully developed and they come across as weaknesses instead.

As your certified Gallup strengths coach, I will help your team identify and develop the individual strengths you need to build a high performing team of leaders within the context of organizational performance goals.

How do you lead a team of leaders? We’ll cover that, too.

Let’s get started.

Strengthening Your Team

How can you build a team that maximizes the talents of its members? How can you collect individual talents for optimal teamwork? What is the best way to hold team members accountable? Why is a team member struggling with something that they used to be great at? How can you use individual motivations to achieve team goals?

I’ve had all these questions and more about my own team-related challenges over the years. I have led teams and teams of teams and have studied the dynamics and what drives teamwork and results. Utilizing the StrengthsFinder assessment as a tool is not only fun but efficient as it helps to map out dynamics of a team very quickly.

StrengthsFinder will help identify:

How the team will approach and solve problems

How the team will interact with each other as well as outside the group

How the team will energize each other as well as outside the group

How the team will accomplish objectives

Every team has it own challenges because every team is unique. I often say, change one person and you have changed the entire team. Working with people as individuals, understanding their talents and motivations, are core to the team dynamic. Fusing the team against shared objectives is what mobilizes a group of people to a goal.

As a coach I can help your team…

Appreciate all team members talent.

Facilitate ground rules that drive trust and respect.

Provide a session without fear or judgement

Accomplish together what couldn’t be done separately

What insight is waiting to fall into place for you?

“Strengths develop best in response to another human being,” – Don Clifton

What You Get with Strengths-Based Team Coaching

Strengths-based coaching for effective teams is just what it sounds like. We focus on strengths instead of weaknesses.

It’s based on decades of research by American psychologist Don Clifton, recognized by the American Psychological Association as the Father of Strengths-based Psychology and Grandfather of Positive Psychology. The strengths-based approach also has proven results.

According to Gallup, organizations and teams that receive strengths-based coaching increase profits by 14 to 29 percent…increase sales by 10 to 19 percent…and lower turnover by 6 to 72 percent.

Increased Profits: Up to 29%

Increased Sales: Up to 19%

Lower Turnover: Up to 72%

My Commitment to You

As your team coach, I will listen powerfully, with empathy and objectivity. I will learn your team’s goals and understand individual perspectives. I will bring courage to the conversation, ensuring we get to the root of what should be driving your team’s direction. I will help you map out a plan for team success built upon team members’ achievement of their fullest potential.

Strengths-based team coaching can:

Identify the goal(s) the team wishes to achieve

Use CliftonStrengths assessment (formerly Clifton StrengthsFinder) to identify each team member’s top five traits, or talents

Discover how each member’s top traits complement one another

Map out a detailed plan of action for goal achievement utilizing everyone’s talents

Facilitate productive meetings, collaboration, and team cohesiveness

Encourage team communication and constructive criticism

Identify counterproductive behavior patterns that are getting in the way

Set measurable milestones

Track progress and adjust the plan as necessary

Celebrate when you meet or exceed team goals

Acknowledge when team members outperform expectations

Strengths 101

$995 +

What you’ll get in Strengths 101:

Use CliftonStrengths assessment (formerly Clifton StrengthsFinder) to identify your top five themes, or talents for your team.

Map defining team architecture based on Strengths lens in terms of Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking attributes.

Customized agenda focused on team commonalities as well as differentiators, enable learning on multiple themes.

Two hour interactive team session driving strengths awareness for self and team, facilitating enlightening moment and team understanding.

If it sounds like quite the journey, that’s because it is.

Discovering new strengths within yourself and your fellow team members

Focusing on these strengths for richer, fuller interpretations of self and others

Learning to articulate discoveries in the shared language of strengths-based work

Plus, the benefit of strengths-based team coaching is not limited to your professional life. Strengths-based work is not only a career-changing experience; it also initiates a profound personal shift as well.

What We’ll Work On

Executive and Leadership Team Coaching

Usually, executives are managers of people. In fact, that’s how I would define an executive. And that’s why executive leadership development works best when supplemented with a team coaching session.

STEP 1

I will meet with the team leader to discuss team dynamics, objectives, and goals. I’ll ask about the most pressing challenges, and for a description of the team’s strengths and weaknesses.

STEP 2

Each team member will take the CliftonStrengths assessment.

STEP 3

I will meet individually with each team member to go over assessment results. This can be just 1-on-1 between the two of us or the team leader may join.

STEP 4

The strengths of each team member will be shared with the group.

STEP 5

I will facilitate a session among all team members that focuses on relationship dynamics within the context of the team leader’s expressed desired outcome.

That said, not all executives want team building sessions.

Alternatively, we can work through the executive/leader’s top five traits and identify how they’re influencing current interactions with the team. This knowledge combined with the team’s behavior and performance should give us a good idea of leadership development needs.

Either way, what I usually find is that Executive Team Coaching is a more intensive journey than that of Strengths 101 [link to Corporate Team Coaching page; see below] – an eye-opening experience for executives to get a 360-degree view of their team’s dynamic.

Corporate Team Coaching

Strengths 101 is a 2-hour team coaching session that explores the foundation of strengths-based work. It covers the basics, but also digs deep, so even someone with strengths experience will learn something from it.

STEP 1

Each team member will take the CliftonStrengths assessment.

STEP 2

Before the session begins, the team will set guiding principles for the team building session. This actually highlights individual strengths and motivation.

STEP 3

As a group, we will dig into the assessment reports.

This process will include specific questions for each team member, as well as free-flowing dialogue. This format has the duel-benefit of helping team members better understand their own strengths, as well as the strengths of others.

STEP 4

As a group, we will dig into the similarities of traits shared among team members.

We’ll go deeper than that, though, and dig into the differentiators – looking for how these shared strengths manifest differently in people (i.e., what makes each team member unique).

But we’ll also dig into the outliers – that is individuals with traits that no one else on the team shares – and identify what their unique strengths have to offer the group.

STEP 5 (OPTIONAL)

This is a 2-hour add-on that we can do the same day or schedule for a later date.

As a group, we will, land on objectives, map out a plan of action, and assign tasks based on individual strengths.

Whatever the size of your team, Strengths 101 can help. I’ve led teams of all sizes through this process, including a group of 150 people!

Retail Team Coaching

Strengths 101 is a 2-hour team coaching session geared to retail leaders, exploring the foundation of strengths-based work and applying that to managing larger teams. It covers the basics along with experiential work, making it engaging even if someone has strengths experience.

STEP 1

Each team member will take the CliftonStrengths assessment.

STEP 2

Before the session begins, we reiterate that the investment is for the leaders in the room. I have found that team leaders are often thinking of how they can bring the work back, bringing themselves back as better leaders is the investment in their team.

STEP 3

As a group, we will dig into the assessment reports.

This process will include individual exercises, sharing in smaller groups and in front of the larger group. This format increases individual learning about Strengths and enables more people pointing to excellence.

STEP 4

As a group, we will dig into the similarities of traits shared among team members.

We’ll go deeper than that, though, and dig into the differentiators – looking for how these shared strengths manifest differently in people (i.e., what makes each team member unique).

But we’ll also dig into the outliers – that is individuals with traits that no one else on the team shares – and identify what their unique strengths have to offer the group.

STEP 5 (OPTIONAL)

There are 2-hour add-on options that can be done the same day or schedule for a later date, even virtually. We can individualize those based on the current state of your team or the needs of the business.

Whatever the size of your team, Strengths 101 can help. This is a great session for a Store Manager or District Manager Conference!

Team Coaching Process & Techniques

Whether it’s executive team coaching, corporate team coaching, or coaching large teams, the strengths-based team development process is the same:

Clarifying objectives within the context of organizational performance goals

Facilitating a session that is dialogue- and sharing-driven

Making connections between traits and desirable behaviors needed for the task at hand

Identifying how traits can work in tandem for optimal team performance

Identifying team member motivations

Creating opportunities for individual satisfaction and success

Encouraging team members to share successes

Driving trust and transparency for optimal team cohesiveness

Bringing it all together for desired results (a truly collaborative team is a successful one)

Acknowledging when team members outperform expectations

Specific coaching techniques used throughout this process can include:

Assessment of individual strengths using the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment

1-on-1 sessions and/or group Q&A to go over the Strengths Insights Report

Experiential exercises

Mapping out objectives for goal achievement

Assigning tasks and facilitating collaborations according to individual strengths

Setting measurable milestones

No two teams are the same, so techniques may be added, combined, or tweaked as necessary.

Team Coaching Questions

Fabulous, great questions! What is team coaching? What is team coaching in business? Why use team coaching? What does a team coach do? Well, we have some answers for your team coaching questions, so have a look. And as always, feel free to contact us if you have more.